I was never convinced LaBarbera would be this 'savior' as most were thinking he'd be as he was stuck in Manchester last season. He's better than Brust or Fukufuji in the minors, but right now he isn't looking all that much better than them. He's stunk it up in the pre-season, in three minutes against Salzburg and his performance yesterday didn't help his cause. He is slowly proving more and more that he is playing against competition that is out of his league.

There are tons of goalies who have had success in the minors, may have a few impressive showings in some NHL games but ultimately are not cut mentally or physically to play in the NHL. Look at Nolan Schaefer for example, who had an impressive pro start with the Sharks. But the reality is that he isn't good enough to stick on an NHL roster. The same applies with Andy Chiodo, Maxime Ouellet, Jean-Francoise Labbe and countless other minor league goalies.

An excellent example of his poor fundamentals. The goaltender is supposed to make himself bigger in net when the puck is in tight, but what does LaBarbera do? He panics and sprawls on his belly and makes himself to be as small as possible to leave a gaping open net for the opposing team to easily bury a loose puck.

He can't control rebounds and he does very poor job covering loose pucks. Right now the only thing he has proven is that he is an adequate #3 goaltender, something the Kings appear to be stacked full of right now.